EPA Keeping Maximum Contaminant Levels for PFOA and PFOS

On Wednesday, May 14th, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it will retain the current National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (NPDWR) for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), which set limits on these “forever chemicals” in drinking water. In the same announcement, EPA stated that it will pursue an extended compliance deadline, establish a federal exemption framework, and initiate enhanced outreach to offer technical assistance to challenged water systems who may be at the greatest risk of non-compliance. All of these actions aim to address compliance concerns that were raised by water systems by reducing the burden on systems, who are facing additional complicated regulations like the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI). EPA also announced that it aims to rescind regulations for PFHxS, PFNA, and HFPO-DA (commonly known as GenX), and the Hazard Index mixture of these three plus PFBS. EPA will reconsider the regulatory determinations of these chemicals at a later date.